Preparation of AgCl Particles with Different Superwettabilities by Particle Size Regulation.

In this work, a simple ammonia evaporation process to obtain AgCl powder with arbitrary superwettability, without introducing any low-surface-free-energy modifier, was investigated. By controlling the recrystallization parameters of the ammonia evaporation process, AgCl crystals precipitated from AgCl-ammonia solution show different wettabilities ranging from superhydrophilicity, via hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity, to superhydrophobicity, with the same chemical composition and structure. Characterization of the obtained AgCl samples with different wettabilities confirms the decisive effect of particle size although light irradiation also causes their wettability transformation.